As I mentioned yesterday, I had my first EMT class last night. I think I have a pretty good feel for what to expect: hard work. If you know me at all, you know that’s how I approach most things and EMT will be no exception.

The course-work, test schedule, and minimum scores are fairly weighty. I think I’ve gotten lucky and gotten a great instructor. I asked a trusted friend of mine and was told that he is one of the best. That’s comforting.

My wife and I came to the decision together to refocus our marriage on the one center that could keep this wheel balanced: Jesus. We are both believers. We are both human. I made mistakes. I see that. She in her grace sees that. We are moving on. Without this critical moment, our marriage would not have survived.

By this time, I am in my late twenties. My marriage has just barely survived. I have three children under ten years old. I am now a senior engineer at the company I work for, and I have a side business that is circling the drain.

The city that I live in has a municipal fire department. This department holds what they call a “green” academy.

The green academy takes applicants that have zero experience and trains them to become a state certified EMT, and fire-certified. Obviously this can be very costly for the department. Because it’s so costly they do not hire very often.

I grew up a child of the 80s. Between He-Man, Def Leppard, Knight-Rider, and The Electric Company, I was a well-kept child (in my opinion). I never wanted for anything. Born of a UK native, and a US service-member, I was an international kid and did not even realize it until I was much older.

I’ve been “blogging” for some time. I like to call it “journaling“. I’m going through an amazing transformation right now. I created a site on medium in order to write all of this stuff down. Medium is more well-suited for a long-form type post. Perfect for what I set out to do. I’ve been announcing articles being published on twitter and via email.

It dawned on me the other day, I could be building a platform. That platform could help other nerds that want to transition into Fire Service, or EMS. Thankfully for me, it’s early enough that I can shift that paradigm without too much pain. Hence the birth of this site. Why can’t I do something that’s of more value than navel-gazing and self-aggrandizement? Yes, I’m sharing God’s miracles with my limited readership, but why not be a RESOURCE?!?

I will be including personal anecdotes and reflections just like on my medium blog, but at the same time I want to create a resource for others that are like me.

Over the coming weeks I’m migrating my medium content here, but will also be publishing information, links, etc in the interest of helping others. If you have some suggestions, please drop me a line!

Let’s do this.

In the interest of trying it out, here’s a link to a great book by a great author on building your platform. It’s “Platform: Get noticed in a noisy world” by Michael Hyatt. He has a great blog as well and sends out frequent digests. Recommended reading!